The Congress party is making a big hue and cry over the BJP’s decision to nominate Devashish Sharma to contest the October 6 Lok Sabha by-election for the Nagaon seat of Assam. Sharma, an IAS officer, took voluntary retirement as Nagaon District Commissioner and was named to contest the election, indicating it was planned well ahead. He took VRS on September 3, formally joined the state’s ruling BJP on September 6 and was officially announced as the party’s nominee for the Nagaon by-election.

As District Commissioner, Sharma oversaw the recent Assam Assembly elections as District Election Officer in all eight Assembly constituencies in Nagaon district, five of which fall under the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat, from which Sharma will contest the election. Of these, Dhing was won by the Raijor Dal by a margin of 71,494 votes, Rupohihat by Congress by 69,766 votes, Samaguri by Congress by 108,310 votes, and Nagaon-Batadraba by the BJP by 61,984 votes, while the BJP’s other victory came in Raha, where it won by a comparatively smaller margin of 20,594 votes. This establishes that Sharma either did not try to influence the outcome or, if he did, he failed miserably, for which the BJP could not have rewarded him with the Lok Sabha nomination.

Bureaucrats Entering Active Politics

Sharma is not the first, and definitely not the last, bureaucrat to take VRS to........

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